Mass Effect 2A: Shepard's Trial
by grom76
Summary: This is a sequel to My fanfic Hunt for Commander Shepard. It is set 8th months ahead of Mass Effect 3 and leads up to ME 3 Opening Scene. I do not own ME Bioware does.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1:**

Royal Canada Plaza

Vancouver, BC North American States

System Alliance Military HQ

Court room 79:

This was a pre trial Hearing. Commander Neso Shepard was back on earth, but instead as being greeted as a hero, he was in shackles her to see if there was enough evidence to proceed to trial. Neso was being represented by his ex girlfriend Commander Alice Krieger who was a jag lawyer and also XO of SSV Alsace, Normandy SR-1 sister ship that was also in orbit around earth.

The military tribunal was assembled and it was:

Admiral Joan Deveraux System Alliance defence command

Commodore Rick Stavros System Alliance Intelligence Department

Captain Alan Richards CO SSV Nikola Tesla

Captain Devon Alain CO SSV Colorado

Commander Nicca Santos System Alliance Criminal Investigations

Prosecuting officer was Commander Mark Dennis System Alliance Judge Advocate General

" Nice bind you got yourself this time, Neso." Spoke Alice.

"Alice you know me, always drastic and have to cause havoc." Neso replied.

Alice smiled "Seems to me that they do not have much of evidence against you for your actions in Bahnak system, but I do not like the look of the judge panel."

" They do have my report to what happened, there." Neso replied.

" Admiral Hackett classified that report." Alice said.

"So what do they have then?" Neso asked.

"The report was redacted and given to prosecutor, but mostly they have Batarian Hegemony claims and threats of war. They seem to have proof that you were there." Alice

"Must be the survivors from the Prison, I was in civilian clothes." Neso responded.

"You were also declared dead and suddenly appeared on a batarian space." Alice smiled.

"To bad council is not aware of the situation." Neso replied.

"Council ha snot acknowledged your actions in Bahnak system as a spectre action." Alice told him.

" Well alice that just plain suck then." Neso replied.

And they waited for the tribunal to start proceedings with the trial.

" Your honours, I am here to present a case for a trial of Neso Shepard, formerly Commander of Systems Alliance Military, in that in his activities with the cerberus he has committed crimes of atrocity against 305000 citizens of Batarian Hegemony exactly four months ago. We only proceeded with the pre trial today as we were gathering evidence." Mark opened.

" What evidence do you present that this has occurred Prosecutor Dennis." Joan asked.

" I have report from Mr Shepard that he filed with the Admiral Hackett, and affidavits of several officers of Batarian Hegemony Prison Guards." Mark continued.

"Objections, Affidavits are hearsay and the report is classified." Alice spoke.

"Overruled, Commander Krieger, report was declassified for the purposes of tribunal, and affidavits are witness statements of guard at the prison Commander shepard Raided, correction Ex-commander shepard that is." spoke commodore stavros.

" Commander Dennis present all your evidence to tribunal, and we will decide in 48 Hours if we will proceed with Tribunal." Admiral Deveraux ordered.

And with that the first day of pre trial was over. Neso and Alice left the court to go to his detention suite on the 8th floor of the building.

" Neso, Batarians do not like you very much." Alice smiles as she told him.

"The feeling is mutual. So how is the situation." Neso asked.

"Evidence is flimsy, but I think due to the politics the trial will proceed." Alice told him.

" Fuck politics." Neso swore.

" Alliance does not want war with the Batarians right now. We still have reports of unknown ships if the outer reaches of galaxy." Alice mentioned.

"Reapers." Shepard said.

"Command does not know yet, and the proof you blew up with the relay." Alice told him.

"Batarians were hiding that relay was alpha relay, I had to do it or they would have been at earth two days after I arrived at the Bahnak system." Neso told her.

"Neso, I know but you have to be very careful, Reapers are still largely classified and general population still does not know that they are real." Alice mentioned.

" Alliance command should warn everybody of the reapers and prepare for a war." Neso responded.

Alice left shepard by himself and she went to her suite on the 10th floor.

Neso was left wandering on what to do.

' I had to blow up the relay to stop the reapers, Alliance finally has the proof that the reapers are real, that he was not imagining them as they speculated like council, if there were attacks on the smaller planets, well even council might believe him to, but for now he had to clear his name and end this farce of a trial before reapers showed up to ruin his and everybody else's day.' And with That he went to sleep


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

SSV Caledonia

LT Commander Ashley williams was on her way to Artemis in Skyllian Verge to respond to a reported attack on human colony by Batarian military. The ship arrived at the planet to find the attack still in progress.

"Send report to alliance command, batarian attack in progress, two frigates and troop transport." Ashley told Caledonia's pilot James Carter.

"Aye, aye sir." James responded.

"Marines meet me in the landing bay, we are going down to assist garrison in defense." Ashley spoke.

Ashley hurried to the landing bay to meet her marines. They were waiting for her right next to Caledonia's three M35 Mako AFV. She returned the salutes of her troopers and proceeded to board her command mako for the planetary drop. The three mako's were dropped right in the middle of batarian attack formation and as they landed they opened fire resulting in deaths of 20 batarians and the rest scattering and retreating .

"Finally alliance sends reinforcements." spoke LT Mark Ares

"LT status report." Ashley exited her mako.

"Sir, planet is under full attack by batarians raiders, not their regular military." Mark replied.

"What about their frigates." Ashley asked.

"Only to guard the troop transport, Batarian military does not want to start a war yet." mark told her.

"LT commander, batarian frigates are leaving the system." James the navigator told her.

"Copy, what is the status of troop transport." Ashley asked her pilot.

"Sending in empty landers to pick up survivor of the attack force." James replied.

"That is good news, we will keep counter attacking." Ash responded.

And with that she returned into her mako and proceeded to attack batarians. She was wandering what the hell were batarians up to this will definitely start the war between alliance and batarians for sure. Batarians were fighting back and were loosing ground slowly, and by the time they reached their landers there were fe3w that have surrendered to alliance marines. The rest got aboard their landers and returned to their troop transport and left the alliance marines to deal with damage and casualties batarian raiders left behind. When they were finished with assisting with the wounded and putting out fires, ashley and her marines boarded their mako's and returned to Caledonia.

SSV Caledonia

Communication room

Ashley williams was waiting for response to her hail to Admiral Hackett.

"Lt Commander Williams report." Admiral Hackett chortled.

"Sir, we report that two batarian frigates and troop transport have retreated." Ash responded.

"Casualty report." Hackett asked.

"None among my troops, 250 civilians died, with 35 garrison troops and over 350 batarian raiders died with 15 captured." Ash informed him.

"Regular batarian forces." Hacked responded.

" No, sir only batarian irregulars, their ships stayed with out firing." Ashley spoke.

"So batarians are not trying to provoke a full blown war." Hackett intoned.

"Seems that way, but why attack in the first place sir." Ash asked.

"Need to know, Lt commander." Admiral told her.

" Aye, Aye sir." Ash responded.

And admiral steven hackett cut off communications. 'You will find out soon enough williams'

Ash was left wondering what is going on. But when the time came to it she firmly believed that she would find out eventually. And with that SSV Caledonia proceeded to return to Arcturus station for a debrief and new orders.

On earth Neso shepard was still Waiting to hear from the court if he was going to proceed on trial. He was also wandering on what ash was doing. He smiled at the tought of the woman he loved and what she meant to him. After the reapers were dealt with and galaxy saved he thought it would be nice to start a family with her, the thought of making children with ashley was fun. Knowing that Ash came from a family with four children, she might want to have a large family herself. But the damn trial was pissing him of, did not alliance understand why it had to be done. He wa s wandering what will happen next, and then he just fell asleep. He still has one more day to wait for decision if he will get a trial or what.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3:**

Royal Canada Plaza

System Alliance Military HQ

Court room 79:

"Please all rise for the judges." spoke corporal Mason court bailiff.

And as everybody rose to wait for the judges the five judges entered the courtroom and sat down for the trial.

"Commander Neso Shepard please rise." admiral Deveraux spoke.

Neso rose up with his lawyer and waited.

" As to the charges of war crimes against you for the death over 300,000 batarian colonists we do not have any case to sustain those charges since we officially were not at war, dismissed. As to the charges of over 300,000 murder charges in the first degree, there is no evidence to prove that this was a first degree murder, since it was done to prevent reaper arrival, murder charges dismissed, how ever there is sufficient evidence to proceed with manslaughter charges." Deveraux mentioned.

"Your honours prosecution will need one month to prepare for the charges of manslaughter, due to amount of paperwork that needs to be changed." Spoke Mark Dennis .

"Court is so adjourned for 30 days, Commander Shepard your Commission is still suspended and you are ordered to remain here on earth." said commodore Stavros.

" My client will do so your honours." Alice said.

" All rise, court is dismissed." bailiff thundered.

Neso and alice were left alone in the courtroom.

"Well looks like you got a break." alice smiled.

"Not really it only prolongs the process and prevents me from being out there preparing to fight reapers." Neso replied.

" Looks like they believe you, but still." alice commented.

"They better believe it or lot of people are going to die." neso responded.

Meanwhile in the arcturus station LT commander Ashley M. Williams was preparing SSV Normandy SR-2 for it's maiden voyage as new alliance ship. She missed shepard and after all this was his ship.

" Lt, commander we are ready to depart, sir." Joker called from bridge.

"I just got our new orders, we are to investigate why our two colonies in the outer reaches of Alliance space have gone silent. So we will proceed first to Tersine system and colony of Tarsus." ashley spoke over the com.

And with that normandy left for its first mission as alliance ship. CIC was ripe with activities of its alliance crew. There were not traces cerberus stuff on the ship and all it's former crew except joker, gabby and ken remained with normandy all other cerberus crew was on Illium waiting for the news of Shepard's trial. Ashley was wandering how Neso was doing and what the hell was alliance thinking of trying the hero of Alliance and Savior of Citadel. First human spectre deserved better than this political farce of trial. Let batarian Hegemony stew in anger they were not going to start a war that they were going to lose.

Neso was on earth I n his quarters in the detention level, wandering on how was ashley handling her new command. He was happy that his ship was in her hands. She was the only person who he know will take care of his ship like he would. He just hoped that the trial will be over in couple months so he can start planning to fight reapers before they arrive on earth and start their cycle of destruction again. He did not want to be groundside when they attacked, He wanted to be in space where he knew he can beat them like he beat sovereign and the geth fleet. But he will also0 need to gather other races to help humanity, because Alliance could not beat reapers on it's own.

Alice Krieger was smiling at the stupidity of prosecution for not including manslaughter charges in the first place. In one month there will be official confirmation that reapers have arrived in galaxy and the whole trial will end because shepard is only person who has fought them and knows how to beat them. She just had to wait 30 days and shepard will be free to do what he does best. But she also wandered if there is a chance of her and Neso getting back together as a couple. She was going to try to get him back.

SSV Normandy arrived in the tarsine system, only to find debris.

"Lt Commander Williams, Tarsus trading station is not there." Tactical yeoman Charles Sevoi spoke.

"Tactical initiate system wide scan, now, joker activate stealth field." Ashley commanded.

SSV normandy cloaked and scanned to see the cause of why Tarsus trading station was destroyed.

"No communications from Tarsus colony." Communication yeoman spoke.

" Scan the planet for life signs." Ashley spoke

" No life signs on planet and scan indicate that colony is destroyed, there is only rubble." Scanning offices spoke.

"Oh my god there were 6500 colonists in that colony." Ashley said.

"Scans are clear no threat detected." Yeoman Sevoi spoke.

" Colony wa destroyed by orbital bombardment, reapers have arrived, alert Alliance command and file report, Joker get us to the relay and go to Seville system." Ashley ordered.

SSV Normandy left the Tersine system and left for Seville system. Ashley was afraid that she will find the same thing there but she also knew that two alliance cruisers were in Seville system, so one ship might be able to report situation if computer core survived with scan results of those cruisers.

Author Note:

Sorry it took me so long to post another chapter but have been busy with ME 3 Demo. More than likely I will put up three more chapters in this story line and close it to prepare my self for writing of ME 3 story line in my next fanfic, please review and let me know how I am doing so far. I did intend for this story to be short due to fact it is tie in to ME 3 from my first fanfic Hunt for Commander shepard, and will continue if Mass effect 3: Shepard's war my next fanfic of Neso Shepard's adventures in Mass effect is all for now.

I do not own Bioware but do very well whish that I did. It is definitely fun to play and write in this universe.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 :**

SSV Normandy entered the seville system only to find the same results they found in tersine system. They also found both black boxes of two cruisers that were in system.

Lt. Commander Ashley Williams was shaking her head another human colony destroyed and another 4500 lives lost. 2 Alliance cruisers lost in senseless battle with reapers. Damn it Shepard warned them repeatedly that reapers were real and they were coming. How come the fools of the council and alliance leaderships still refused to believe. Well now with the black boxes she had irrefutable proof that reapers have arrived. After all this rest of the races will stand behind shepard, but it just might be to late. And she hoped that alliance fools will not court marshal shepard and throw away the key to his cell. O how she missed her skipper. Ash wished that he was here with her he would know what to make of this situation.

Neso Shepard was in his cell residence on earth reading one of many news reports about him and how he claimed that reapers existed. They went on from calling him disgraced spectre to a mass murderer. Do those idiot reporters even realise how hard was it for him to blow up that relay. How hard was to sacrifice over 300 000 souls even if they were batarians to give earth and alliance time to prepare for reaper invasion. Did they realise what danger reapers presented to all organic races in the galaxy. Yet they went on their anti shepard harangues daily. He was wandering if he would get a fair trail. He was wandering what ash was doing. He smiled at the thought of the woman he loved. She made his day by just being next to him. Her fighting spirit and winning personality. Ashley was a fighter that never backed out of a fight. He proved that on Eden Prime when she lost her unit and was still fighting the geth when shepard arrived to help her and rescue her. Then their night on ilos. The little incident on horizon and their return to each others good graces and restoring their relationship to its potential. He wanted to see her so badly and to tell her that he loved her and needed her by his side.

Admiral Steven Hackett just received reports from normandy, two destroyed human colonies, two lost cruisers and reapers close to earth. Shepard warned them. Hope it was not to late to try and stop the reapers. Hopefully the defense council will be able to stop shepard's trial and get ready for reapers invasion. They needed shepard, but they also needed to keep shepard away from batarians before they did something that might start a war. Nobody needed a war to start before reapers arrived. He was going to send a message to earth.

From: Admiral Steven Hackett Fleet Command

To: System Alliance Defense Council and Shepard Tribunal

Re: Shepard Tribunal

This has gone far enough. The tribunal idea was bad enough. We needed to get shepard back to earth and away from batarian retaliation and we did that. It is obvious that batarians have some problems and are not interested in war with alliance. So we need to stop with the farce of trial and let shepard go. The proof against him is more that flimsy enough and it is not enough to warrant a conviction. The trial needs to stop.

Remainder this report and message are classified.

Admiral Steven Hackett

Chief of Naval Operations

And the message was away.

Defense council received the message and was making a decision, when they called in prosecutor and senior judge.

Admiral Preston Marwen: " Well admiral Deveraux looks like we will have to stop your tribunal."

"I protest, sir." responded commander Dennis.

" Mark silence, yes we must end this farce of trial." Responded Admiral Joan Deveraux.

And the Decision was made.

To: Commander Alice Krieger

CC: Commander Neso Shepard

From: Alliance Defense Council

Re: Commander Shepard Tribunal

Commander Krieger

This message is to inform you and your client Commander Neso Shepard that the tribunal for Commander Shepard will not proceed. All the remaining charges have been dropped. Neso Shepards commission is still suspended pending the decision of Alliance command on when and how to reinstated him back into active service. As of Now shepard is still listed in inactive roster.

Admiral Preston Marwen

Defense Command

Alice could not believe her eyes yet the message was there. Finally the sham of the trial was over before it begun. She wa happy for shepard, but he was still not back in uniform he belonged out there preparing races to fight reapers. She was on her way to tell neso the news.

"Well, Neso Shepard the hero of citadel looking down and under." Alice chortled.

"Nice to see you to Alice." Neso responded.

" Your trial is over, all charges have been dropped." Alice told him.

"What about my commission." Neso asked.

"You are still inactive, sorry." Alice responded.

"Well that is nice for now." Neso replied.

Alice left him to contemplate news that she has given him. He needed to be by himself. Neso watched her leave him and smiled. The trial was over, but he was wandering if his career was over. He only knew how to be soldier, he joined the alliance to escape his life as tenth street red. He did not want to return to life of crime. But then he realised even if his alliance career was over he was still council spectre. He still could make a difference in galaxy. He wandered what ashley was doing right now. Wandering on how normandy was doing, he missed his ship and his crew. He needed to be out there to fight the reapers. And he was going to find a way to get himself reinstated. He needed to stop reapers and harbinger.

This concludes Shepard's Trial fanfic. The story will continue in my next fanfic as I tell my version of Neso shepard adventures in Mass Effect 3. I will try to keep as match of ME 3 cannon as I can but will have my own interpretation of my shepards story. And because of certain controversies in the game endings I will use my own version of endings. Keep reading my next fanfic. I do appreciate all constructive reviews.

Hope to see you all in my next fanfic.


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